May 22, 2007

Last night, I had a lovely dinner with two friends (and possible future roommates), and when we were finished eating, we settled in to knit. M has been knitting for a while, but had never made socks before. She had called me from Webs on Saturday afternoon, contemplating the sock yarn display and asking for advice, and yesterday she asked me if I would come help her wrestle with it. I love teaching people to knit, or new techniques! She did a gauge swatch, measured her foot, and I helped her figure out how many stitches she needed, then showed her my favorite cast-on, the Magic Cast On that I found in Knitty a while ago, and have since used for everything that could possibly use a provisional cast on. By the time I left, at about midnight, she had everything pretty well figured out, and was several rounds into the toe increases. I’m looking forward to seeing it grow, and we’ll have fun figuring out the heel. I haven’t done much teaching before, so I hope I don’t just end up confusing her. Especially since her roommate S has knit socks before, but uses different techniques than I do – I hope we don’t end up giving M conflicting advice.

If I do end up living with them, it will be a house full of crazy contra-dancing knitters. Sounds like fun to me!

Also, by the time I left their house, I had a finished Twisted Flower sock. More on that later. =)

May 2, 2007

I had nothing to do last night – it was my first complete down-time in… well, I haven’t blogged in over three weeks… so yeah, it’s been a while. I could have blogged last night. I could have done laundry, or cleaned my room, or cooked actual food. I thought about blogging. I really meant to. Instead, I decided I had to put one of these together with this…

I used the red, which I believe is the “Ruby River” colorway, and… wow. I’m either halfway done with the leg, or just about ready to start the heel flap, depending on whether I decide to make a long sock (following the pattern) or short (because that’s what I usually make). The pattern is so beautiful and complex and wonderful and clearly written and gorgeously charted that I kind of want to make the sock longer to show it off, but then I worry that I might not wear it if it’s much longer than my usual. I’ll probably make a decision on that in rehearsal tonight, since I’ll be at the point where I’ll have to either start another repeat, or the heel flap.

I also have to decide whether I’m going to make the patterned-flap heel called for in the pattern, or just a basic heel. It’s a tough decision, because the patterned flap is beautiful and works perfectly with the rest of the sock, but I know from my other Bearfoot socks (one of which I’m wearing right now) that the heel patterning will felt out very quickly. My socks tend to get a lot of spot-felting on the back of the heel where they rub against my work- and dance- shoes, and the Bearfoot seems particularly susceptible to this. But it’s so wonderfully soft and comes in such gorgeous colors! Did I mention (no, of course I didn’t; I haven’t blogged in forever, shame on me) that I bought another three skeins of Bearfoot two weeks ago?

I have been a negligent blogger, and I apologize. The new beau is immensely distracting, and that is the only excuse I am able to offer. Oh, also concerts and dances and folk festivals and birthdays and parties and… yeah. I’ll try to do better… I might even have time to take some pictures on Friday, unless I’m making pineapple upside-down cake as my birthday present to myself. And if I do that, I’ll definitely take pictures of setting the cake on fire. That’s the best part.

April 9, 2007

I didn’t fall off the face of the earth, really! I was just in Maine at my brother’s house with no Internet access. On Friday I had to run as soon as I finished those Painted Madness socks, to pick him up at work and bring him to our grandmother’s house for our (very non-traditional) Seder. It was fun – our Seders mostly consist of us running through the essentials, like the Plagues and the Wicked Son (always read by my brother, of course), laughing at my mother for getting drunk off a thimbleful of Manischewitz, and eating vast quantities of food.

On Saturday, the brother and I went shopping, and I found pants! No more ranting necessary, at least until these wear out and I need more. I got three pairs of jeans, only one of which is perfect, but the other two will do, and a pair of very nice black slacks that fit perfectly from waist to feet… and then about six inches beyond. So, not perfect, but they’ll be very nice if I ever get around to hemming them.

I went dancing with my parents Saturday night, and ran into a guy I haven’t seen since he was a freshman in high school – it was a bit of a shock. He came over and said “hi,” and then said, “You have no idea who I am, do you?” I was, of course, obliged to say that no, I didn’t have a clue. In my defense, he’s now a foot taller, muscular, much more outgoing, and actually not unattractive! He was cool about it, and we chatted for a while, and danced together a bit, but it was a very weird feeling – this is the first time that I’ve run into someone I had a very definite mental image of and had it just completely not jibe, at all.

Sunday I pretty much just hung out with my brother all day, then stopped by to see Mr. P on the way home. I think it’s getting to be about time to give him a new pseudonym.

A very good weekend.

And now, a bit more about the Painted Madness socks! At first, I thought it was a cute pattern but really not something I’d ever wear. I still think they’re not really “me,” but I really like them – I think the cuff is a great way to show off the beautiful variegated yarn without doing a plain stockinette sock, and the garter stitch edging is… well, “cute,” and “adorable” are not words that generally describe any of my wardrobe, so I’m going to go with “twee.” And I’m still a huge fan of Mountain Colors Bearfoot, especially worked on the smaller needles I used for this pattern – so soft and cushy and dense and warm and lovely.

I do feel a little bad about knocking Julie out of the competition – look at what she was dealing with! Such an intrepid knitter doesn’t deserve to lose a competition just because I had lights and disdained sleep. But I’ve been emailing back and forth with her, so I don’t feel too bad – she’s not upset, and is looking forward to making the rest of the patterns calmly and without pressure, while I keep giving up sleep.

No word yet on when the next round starts. I suspect that it’ll be somewhere in the vicinity of next weekend, though, and I think I’m toast. I’m going to a concert Friday night with Mr. P, and probably staying with him through at least most of Saturday, and then my Renaissance music group has a concert Sunday afternoon. Not much knitting time in there – while Mr. P knows I’m an insane knitter, and he knows about this competition, I think he would (rightly) question my priorities if I spent my weekend knitting frantically and ignoring him. Maybe I’ll teach him to knit.

Oh yeah, and remember last Monday when I mentioned that I was very close to finishing Bayerische? I finished it that day, on a conference call – just haven’t had time to post pictures. That might come tomorrow, if I’m still alive at the end of rehearsal.

April 6, 2007

Just got it in under the wire – have to throw my stuff together and drive to Maine now, but I finished my socks before my 2:00 deadline!

More on this when I’m not racing to get out the door, but yay for both the pattern and the yarns!

Also, I’ve decided I don’t like the “blog this” thing from Flickr. It sent my last post three times, and I don’t like the formatting. I’ll go back and fix them – also when I’m not racing to get out the door.

Here’s where I stand (or rather, where I collapse for the night) right now, after a couple of hours knitting after work at Starbucks before dancing, then several hours of dancing, and then about an hour of knitting once I got home. Sock #1 is where it was when I last posted, which is I think three rows shy of the end of the gusset. Sock 2 is done through the heel flap. I am so pleased to announce the end of the heel stitch! For some reason that always seems to take forever for me.

I haven’t seen how Julie’s doing yet, so I have no idea whether I’m ahead or behind her, or by how much. But I really can’t think about it right now – must sleep, so I can wake up and keep knitting in the morning!

April 5, 2007

I don’t think I like this race-knitting in the middle of a work week. I know that my opponent is also busy… but this is a really crazy week for me at work, with six different people depending on me for lots of (uncredited) support work before they can even start their research. I mean, they say “thanks,” and I know I’m a valuable member of the department, but I don’t get my name on the papers or anything, which is kind of frustrating.

But anyway, I’m not here to complain about work. I’m here to tell you, since I can’t show you, since I’m not home to take pictures, how I’m doing in the Madness:

As of now, I’ve got Painted Madness sock 1 (Mountain Colors Bearfoot, “Glacier Teal”) almost to the end of the gusset, and sock 2 (also Bearfoot, “Alpine) about an inch and a half into the cuff. I’ll have a few hours between work and dancing tonight, but I’m not going home – I’ll probably knit for a while at a coffee shop, so my progress pictures tonight will hopefully be a bit further than that. And dancing will be fun – Mr. Potential is coming. Yay!